PHOTO: Envelope of Frank Kameny's letter mailed to Jack Baker March 4, 1973 with the famous "LOVE" U.S. postage stamp based on a famous painting. (See Jack Baker, "Letter from Frank E. Kameny Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.)," box8661.blogspot.com as last posted July 16, 2012)
PHOTO: A letter Frank Kameny mailed to Jack Baker on March 4, 1973 after Frank saw Jack's appearance on the David Susskind TV show concerning the gay liberation movement. Frank tells jack about the successful efforts to repeal the sodomy law in Washington, D.C. and his plans to attend an American Psychiatric Association meeting that would later prove to be important in the decision to remove homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders. (See Jack Baker, "Letter from Frank E. Kameny Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.)," box8661.blogspot.com as posted July 16, 2012)
Jack Baker continues to post the very interesting letters that were sent him in response to the international news coverage of his gay marriage activism in Minnesota. He plans to donate these to The Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota. (See Jack Baker, "Some letters from inside the U.S.A. (A-F) Dreams come alive," box8661.blogspot.com posted July 12, 2012 and my previous post Jack Baker deserves mainstream press coverage after gay marriage ruling (7/7/12))
Frank Kameny was one of the original gay activists who was involved in getting homosexuality removed from the official list of mental disorders now known today as the American Psychiatric Association, "Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR," American Psychiatric Association, 2000 (Google Books search). (Also see (Wikipedia)) This book is commonly abbreviated as the DSM. The history of a larger agenda that followed is described in the paper by Charles Silverstein, "The Implications of Removing Homosexuality from the DSM as a Mental Disorder," Archives of Sexual Behavior, April, 2009, p. 161-163. (See my previous post DSM V pedophilia, hebephilia, ephebophilia, teliophilia, gerontophilia (8/22/09))
